Europe

14, April 2019

France: Could Macron and Brexit make Paris the capital of European tech? ⁰

Shortly after his election in May 2017, President Macron said he wanted France itself “to think and move like a start-up” – a vision of the country’s digital future that is gaining traction as Britain wrestles with Brexit.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to make France a ‘start-up nation’ amid the uncertainty over Brexit is raising the question of whether Paris could supplant London as the capital of European tech.

Since his election, Macron has wooed tech entrepreneurs with a string of initiatives in the form of lavish tax breaks, subsides, and credits for research. In March 2018, he promised to invest €1.5 billion into artificial intelligence research through 2022.

Some of these initiatives, in addition to Macron’s dynamism, have lured British tech companies who are looking to gain a foothold in Europe.

“It made sense to have a European base,” said Cedric Jones*, a Briton who recently launched a start-up at Station F, the cavernous old train station that is now home to the world’s largest start-up campus. “If I’m going to make waves in continental Europe… I wanted to get here before Brexit happened.”

Jones is among dozens of foreign entrepreneurs who have recently launched their start-up at Station F, whose 3,000 desk hub has seen spiralling applications from English-speaking nationals in the last two years.

Some cite political woes back home, the burgeoning French tech sector, or are inspired by Macron’s bid to make Paris the innovation heart of Europe.

“There’s an air of optimism and a can-do spirit in France that I feel we’ve lost somewhat in the US,” said Mark Heath, a New Yorker, who stayed on in France to launch a start-up after studying at INSEAD in 2017.

The Macron effect

Much of the investment in French tech predates Macron’s reforms. The state investment bank Bpifrance, launched by former French president François Hollande in 2013, has been widely credited with developing the sector. Hollande also set up new foreign visas for start-up entrepreneurs.

But Zahir Bouchaary, a Briton who works out of Station F, credits Macron with injecting dynamism into the sector.

“Macron has installed a [start-up] mentality within the French ecosystem itself,” said Bouchaary, adding that it has become much easier to do business in France in the last few years.

“French customers are a lot more willing to work with start-ups than they were before,” said Bouchaary. “France was a very conservative country and our clients were used to working with big old-fashioned companies that have been around for a while. For the past few years they’ve opened up a lot more to working with younger companies and seem to take more risks than they did before.”

Jones agreed that Macron was “the single variable”. “When he [Macron] goes, the dynamism will go too. I absolutely would not expect that to remain the case if he’s not president.”

However, although Macron has moved to ease labour laws, Jones said that navigating the country’s labyrinthine bureaucracy in French remained “very burdensome”, and that it was far easier to build a business in the UK. “Whether it’s from a tax perspective or from a legal perspective it’s just so much more complicated.”

UK tech ‘resilient’

The tech scene in London appears to be just as vibrant as ever, explained Albin Serviant, president of Frenchtech in London, who said many UK-based tech entrepreneurs are adopting a “wait and see” approach to Brexit.

“The UK ecosystem is quite resilient,” said Serviant.

“In the first quarter of 2019, there were about €2 billion invested in tech in London. That’s compared to 1.5 billion last year, which is plus 30 percent. And that’s twice as much as France – which invested 1 billion. France is catching up very fast but the investment money is still flowing in the UK,” he added.

Serviant cited London’s business-friendly ecosystem and international talent pool as reasons for why London remains the capital of the European tech sector.

Nonetheless Serviant cautioned against the effects that a hard Brexit would have on the tech sector in the UK.

“‘If Brexit happens in a bad way and if people like me and other entrepreneurs have to leave, obviously that’s very bad for the UK because what makes it very different is the international DNA of London.”

Hard Brexit would not just damage the UK tech sector but would also pose challenges for British developers, who post-Brexit may need a carte de séjour to work in the country, looking to find work in France.

Sarah Pedroza, co managing director of Hello Tomorrow technologies, a Paris-based startup NGO, said that if she had to choose between hiring a British national and an EU citizen with the same skillset, she would opt for an EU citizen because there would be less paperwork involved.

Brexit aside, others suggest that France is snapping at the UK’s technological heels.

“I do think France has the potential under Macron to close the gap with the UK,” said Jones.

“The single biggest factor in what’s going on for France is that France is developing a sense of confidence in itself, in its start-up scene, as a tech hub, that’s being helped by France and that’s also being helped by Brexit.”

Source: France 24

1, April 2019

EU official warns ‘patience running out’ with UK over Brexit ⁰

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that the European Union (EU) is “running out” of patience with the United Kingdom over Brexit, days after a withdrawal deal put forward by embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a third defeat in the country’s parliament.

“With our British friends we have a lot of patience, but even patience is running out,” Juncker said in an interview with Italian public broadcaster RAI on Sunday. “So far, we know what the British parliament says no to, but we don’t know what it might say yes to.”

Juncker added that he would like the British parliament to reach an agreement on a Brexit plan “in the coming hours and days.”

Asked whether a second referendum on the matter within the UK might be possible, the European Commission president said it was an issue “that concerns the British only.”

People in Britain voted in a referendum in 2016 to leave the EU. But the British government remains divided on the manner of a withdrawal. Some have even questioned whether sentiments for a pullout remain as strong, suggesting that a second referendum be held.

On Friday, British lawmakers voted 344-286 against May’s 585-page EU Withdrawal Agreement for a third time.

PressTV-UK lawmakers reject Brexit deal for third time

The British premier had told parliament that the vote would be the last opportunity to ensure Brexit would take place, also warning that if the deal failed, any further delay to Brexit would probably be a long one beyond April 12.

The British parliament also rejected as many as eight Brexit options, including a no-deal Brexit and the revocation of Article 50, which would mean not leaving the EU at all.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the deadlock, about a million people from both “Leave” and “Remain” campaigns took to the streets of London last weekend to push for a second Brexit referendum. European Council President Donald Tusk also called an emergency meeting for April 10.

The British parliament is scheduled to hold on Monday another round of “indicative votes” on potential Brexit options, one of which includes a customs union with the EU, an option May has always ruled out.

Britain is expected to ratify the Brexit deal until April 12 to secure a short extension from the EU to implement the withdrawal process. Otherwise, London will have to either leave the EU without a deal on that date or seek a long extension to come up with a new solution.

Source: Presstv

1, April 2019

UK: 4 hurt as serial attacker knifes people in London ⁰

Police in the British capital London are searching for a potential serial attacker who randomly approached people from behind and knifed them.

Media reports on Sunday said a total of four people had been injured in random attacks in the northern London borough of Edmonton.

The Metropolitan Police said the “cowardly and senseless” attacks were potentially linked as all the victims had been “selected at random” for being “alone and vulnerable”.

The Met said the suspect, believed to be a slim black man who acted alone, had only aimed to inflict hurt on people as none of the victims had been robbed. They added that the attacker could have suffered from “mental health issues”.

“We are doing everything we can to apprehend the suspect behind these cowardly and senseless attacks,” said a spokesman without elaborating whether the attacks could have been terrorism.

The BBC said the attacks began with the stabbing of a 45-year-old woman in Aberdeen Road at 19:02 GMT on Saturday.

A 52-year-old man was stabbed half a mile away in Park Avenue about four hours later while a third victim, a 23-year-old man, suffered injuries less than a mile away in Silver Street after he was knifed overnight at Seven Sisters Tube station.

UK police

A final stabbing targeting a 29-year-old man came in early morning hours in Brettenham Road.

All the victims except one are now in critical condition and their injuries have been described as life-threatening.

The gruesome stabbing attacks come as the British government and security forces are grappling with a historic surge in knife crime and other types of violence on the streets.

Britain’s interior ministry announced a series of drastic changes to the rules governing stop and search operations by the police. The new measures are meant to enable officers with lower seniority to detect knives and other sharp instruments from people on the streets.

Source: Presstv

31, March 2019

Several people injured as Catalan separatists clash with far-right activists in Barcelona ⁰

Five people were injured and seven arrested on Saturday as members of Spain’s far-right Vox party demonstrating in Barcelona against Catalan independence clashed with separatist activists there, police said.

The violence came amid rising tension in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month and the continuing trial of 12 Catalan leaders for their part in the failed 2017 independence bid.

Police estimated that around 5,000 members of Vox demonstrated in the Catalan capital, in the words of their leader Santiago Abascal to “defend to the very end a united Spain”.

“Spain will not resign itself to being destroyed,” Abascal told the crowd.

Several groups of radical Catalan separatists, many of them masked, had organised counter-demonstrations around the Vox rally, which took place in the Plaza de Espana.

Carrying banners denouncing fascism about 300 of them set up barricades, burning rubbish bins, and throwing bottles and stones at officers, said police.

Vox made its electoral breakthrough when it won seats in the Andalusia regional assembly last December. It is expected to pick up more nationally in the April 28 parliamentary elections.

In the trial of the Catalan nationalists, it has taken the position of a “popular prosecutor”, a role particular to the Spanish justice system, which allows it to be an accuser alongside state prosecutors.

Spain’s socialist government has rejected suggestions that prosecution of the Catalan separatists has been unfair.

(AFP)

18, March 2019

France: Prime Minister to present new plans to crack down on ‘rioters’ ⁰

The French prime minister’s office says it will present plans to further crack down on “rioters”, after a new flare-up of violence the government says is linked to the so-called Yellow Vest protest movement.

The decision was made after a crisis meeting of the cabinet ministers and President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.

PM Edouard Philippe’s office said the latest violence showed current security arrangements were insufficient. The office added that security forces should prepare for firmer measures to stop the violence.

“Drawing conclusions from these shortcomings, the prime minister will present the president tomorrow with measures necessary to adapt the security forces stance so they can act with firmness at any time,” it said in a statement.

Cutting short a weekend ski trip, President Emmanuel Macron returned to Paris late on Saturday for a crisis meeting with ministers at which he ordered decisions to be taken rapidly “so this doesn’t happen again.”

Vandals left hardly a storefront or cafe unscathed on Saturday, breaking windows and looting luxury stores while lighting fires along Paris’ Champs Elysees Avenue as they clashed with riot police in Paris.

PressTV-Yellow vests, police clash in Paris on day of 'ultimatum'

“I’m not a tourist but if I were, I would be quite surprised if I arrived in Paris to find the Champs Elysees in such condition,” a pensioner who only gave his name as Serge told Reuters TV.

“People often talk about the ‘City of Lights’, the ‘Fashion Capital’ and all that, but all you can see is destruction, rubbish, protests, burnt kiosks,” he added.

Police estimated that 10,000 people joined the latest yellow vest protest in Paris and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a hard-core of about 1,500 was intent on causing trouble.

The yellow vest movement emerged in November originally to oppose now abandoned fuel tax hikes and the high cost of living.

The protests quickly spiraled into a broader movement against Macron, his pro-business reforms and elitism in general.

After the spike in violence, Macron offered a package of concessions worth more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) aimed at boosting the incomes of the poorest workers and pensioners.

Presstv

10, March 2019

UK: Prime Minister May faces heavy Brexit defeat in parliament ⁰

British Prime Minster Theresa May’s Brexit deal faces a heavy defeat in parliament on Tuesday because she has so far secured no major changes from the European Union, the leaders of two major eurosceptic factions in parliament said on Sunday.

Just 19 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, May’s is scrambling – so far unsuccessfully – to secure last-minute changes to an EU exit agreement before a vote on Tuesday on whether to approve the deal.

If she fails, lawmakers are expected to force May to seek a delay to Brexit that some fear could see the 2016 decision to leave the bloc reversed. Others argue that without a delay Britain faces chaos if it leaves without a deal on March 29.

Nigel Dodds, the deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which props up May’s minority government, and Steve Baker, a leading figure in the large eurosceptic faction of her Conservative party, warned “the political situation is grim”.

“An unchanged withdrawal agreement will be defeated firmly by a sizeable proportion of Conservatives and the DUP if it is again presented to the Commons,” they wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

The Sunday Times said May was battling to save her job as aides were considering persuading her to offer to resign in a bid to get the deal approved. The newspaper also said cabinet ministers have spoken about whether to insist she goes as early as this week.

Parliament rejected May’s deal by a record margin in January, prompting the British leader to return to Brussels in search of changes to address the so-called Irish backstop – an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

UK parliament

Many British lawmakers object to the policy on the grounds that it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely and cleave Northern Ireland away from the rest of the country.

But, May’s attempts to get the clause rewritten have so far failed to yield any result, with EU negotiators unwilling to meet her demands, and Britain rejecting a compromise offer.

Britain’s opposition Labour Party should support staying in the EU if there is a second referendum, the party’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said on Sunday.

“If there’s a public vote that would operate as a lock, if you like, on any deal that Theresa May get through. If that is the position, then in my view, the default ought to be ‘remain’,” Starmer told Sky News.

However, Starmer said the party would not be seeking to secure support in parliament for a second referendum on Tuesday.

(Source: Reuters)

20, February 2019

4 injured in major Swiss avalanche, no known deaths so far ⁰

A major avalanche has buried skiers on a busy slope of the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, injuring four people, including one whose life is in danger, but there are no known fatalities so far, officials say.

Eight helicopters, 12 dogs, and more than 240 police, rescuers, and soldiers worked to find any more people enveloped in the snow as night fell.

“Rescuers arrived very quickly on the scene. They rescued four injured people, including one whose life is in danger, and three were injured more superficially,” Valais cantonal police commander Christian Varone told a news conference.

“Witnesses told us there could be more people buried under the snow, that is why we are pursuing the search with considerable means.”

He said the avalanche was 840 meters long and 100 meters wide, with 400 meters of heavy snow hitting the piste.

Frederic Favre, head of the Valais department of police and justice, said no one was known to have been killed.

Earlier, the Nouvelliste, a local newspaper, quoted the commune’s president Nicolas Feraud as saying 10 to 12 people were believed to be trapped.

The avalanche, in mid-afternoon, came after a week of warmer temperatures began melting heavy snow. But the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research said the danger for the area had been only at level two on a scale of five on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Catherine Seppey said that an investigation had been opened. “There are two hypotheses. The first is that several skiers set off the avalanche. The second hypothesis is it was a spontaneous avalanche due to climatic conditions, and in that case it will be a question of determining responsibilities and problems of security,” she said.

The site of an avalanche is pictured in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on February 19, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

Philippe Magistretti, president of the Crans-Montana ski lift company, told Reuters by telephone that army personnel who were in the resort had joined the rescue effort.

“The amount of snow is incredible, two meters deep and 300 meters long. It’s a spring avalanche, which is very compact,” the Nouvelliste quoted one unnamed rescue worker as saying. Rescue dogs had not found anyone during a first search, he added.

The avalanche coincided with school holidays in some cantons, including Geneva, as well as overseas. Britain’s Blackheath High School tweeted that all its students on a ski trip in the area were safe.

The resort is scheduled to host two World Cup women’s races this weekend.

Marius Robyr, in charge of organizing the races, was quoted in Tuesday’s Tribune de Geneve, before the avalanche, as saying there was 1 to 1.5 meters of snow on La Nationale ski piste. He said it was closed to tourists ahead of the practice sessions and downhill and combined races.

“Our only ‘enemy’ is the sun,” he said.

(Source: Reuters)

18, February 2019

France: Yellow Vests protesters march through Paris ⁰

Yellow Vests demonstrators took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to continue their months-long protest.

One of the leading figures of the Yellow Vests, Ingrid Levavasseur, was described as a “traitor” and booed by several demonstrators.

The protests are taking place for the 14th week in a row, despite the French government suspending tax hikes and announcing increases to the minimum wage.

Presstv

11, February 2019

Trial of Catalan separatist leaders puts Spanish state on the defensive ⁰

As 12 Catalan separatist leaders prepare to go on trial in Madrid, Spain has been forced to defend the independence and impartiality of its courts.

Catalan separatists have dismissed the high-profile trial which begins Tuesday at Spain’s Supreme Court as a “farce” whose outcome is already pre-determined.

Not so, says the government, which has published a thick file to show Spain’s justice system is just as fair as its European counterparts, citing rankings by the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights and Transparency International.

Supreme Court President Carlos Lesmes points out that if the justice system really was not independent, the king’s brother-in-law would not be in jail for corruption, nor would a court ruling have sparked a no-confidence motion that brought down the conservative government in June.

“I think this will be the most important trial we’ve had in democracy,” he told reporters before the start of the trial. “It’s a challenge because there’s been a big smear campaign of Spain’s judiciary.”

State on trial?

Spain has had a long-standing public perception that its judiciary is biased.

In the EU’s 2018 “Justice Scoreboard”, Spain came sixth to last among 28 member states for public perception of the independence of judges and courts, behind Poland and Hungary.

Despite repeated denials, the conservative government in power at the time of Catalonia’s attempt to break from Spain in October 2017 and the Socialists that took power in June have each been accused of exerting pressure on judges.

“It is the state which will end up in the dock,” one of the main defendants on trial, former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, predicted from pre-trial detention. Junqueras and 11 others are on trial for their role in the attempt to break from Spain.

Separatists call them “political prisoners” who are suffering oppression of the kind experienced in Spain during Francisco Franco’s 1939-75 dictatorship.

‘Unacceptable interference’

In a ruling, Spain’s Supreme Court said the group were not on trial for their ideas. The majority of the defendants were “political leaders who were members of the government of an autonomous region and therefore the highest representatives of the (Spanish) state in Catalonia”, it said.

The government has also had to defend itself from accusations that it put pressure on judges during the criminal investigation phase. Public prosecutors accuse nine of the 12 of rebellion, which implies the use of violence a key charge which has divided Spanish legal experts.

But the state attorney decided in November to only accuse them of the lesser crime of sedition. This has led conservative opposition parties, which take a hard line against Catalan separatism, to accuse the government of “unacceptable interference” in the case.

They suspect the move was part of a bid by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government to win the much-needed support in parliament of Catalan separatist parties for its 2019 budget.

Justice Minister Dolores Delgado, though, said Spain’s new state attorney took the decision “without the government imposing anything”.

European courts

In November, a conservative senator, Ignacio Cosido, also contributed to perception that the judiciary is biased.

On WhatsApp, he welcomed the promotion of Manuel Marchena a judge seen as close to the conservatives who will be presiding at the separatists’ trial at the head of the Supreme Court.

Cosido said it would allow the conservatives to “control” the court “behind the scenes.” After the controversy this generated, Marchena gave up the promotion.

Courts in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland have also contributed to doubts about Spain’s legal system by refusing to extradite separatists who had escaped after the declaration of independence.

A German court for instance last year refused to send former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont back to Spain on rebellion charges.

A Belgian court meanwhile has agreed to consider a civil lawsuit filed by Puigdemont’s lawyers against Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, accusing him of [lacking] impartiality in the case against the Catalan separatist leaders.

Spain has not publicly criticised these decisions. “Our best communication campaign will be the trial,” said Lesmes.

(AFP)

7, February 2019

UK: Prime Minister May planning to delay second Brexit vote ⁰

British Prime Minister Theresa May has reportedly decided to delay next week’s parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal out of fears that she will not be able to renegotiate a deal with the European Union (EU) by then.

May’s chief whip, Julian Smith, signaled at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the second vote on the divorce agreement would be delayed until the end of February to buy the PM enough time to strike a deal with the bloc in time, the Telegraph newspaper reported late on Wednesday, without citing its sources.

The vote on a new deal is now being planned for the week beginning Feb. 25, just over a month before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, according to the report.

Last month, May suffered a humiliating defeat at the House of Commons after lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected her original deal, urging her to make changes to the treaty.

The EU, however, has ruled out renegotiation for major changes.

European Council President Donald Tusk said Wednesday that the bloc will make no new offers.

PressTV-Brexiteers deserve a place in hell: EU’s Tusk

He went as far as implying that supporters of Brexit deserved a “special place in hell” for promoting the exit “without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.”

May is due in the EU capital Brussels on Thursday to warn EU leaders that they should either accept legally binding changes to the Irish border arrangements, the main bone of contention in the deal, or risk a disorderly no-deal Brexit.R

The Telegraph reported on Tuesday that the cabinet had discussed delaying Brexit by no less than eight weeks.

Corbyn sets out conditions to support May’s deal

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a firm critic of May’s handling of Brexit, said Wednesday that he would back a Brexit deal if it addresses his five key demands.

In a letter to the embattled PM, Corbyn said his party desired a UK-wide customs union and close alignment with the EU single market after the divorce.

He also called for “dynamic alignment” with the bloc on citizens’ rights and protections, “clear commitments” on future participation in various EU agencies and funding programs and “unambiguous agreements” on the terms of post-Brexit security arrangements with the bloc.

He made it clear that “simply seeking modifications” to the Irish border arrangements was not a sufficient response.

Corbyn said the EU would accept the UK’s demands for change if London changed its Brexit red lines.

Presstv